Border securityCBP considers relocating agents to stop corruption

With the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) struggling to prevent corruption within its ranks, the Obama administration is considering rotating border agents to other locations to separate them from the powerful Mexican drug cartels and their bribes.

Since 2005 more than 130 CBP employees have been arrested on corruption-related charges, while more recently four employees were arrested in the last four months alone.

The practice of relocating federal law enforcement officers is a standard among the FBI, Secret Service, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, but CBP is still uncertain whether it wants to follow suit.

“It is something we are looking at very carefully,” said James Tomsheck, CBP’s chief of internal affairs who has relocated six times during his twenty-three year career with the Secret Service. “It is too early to make a (final) assessment, but we certainly believe it does have an impact.”

As part of the Obama administration’s border strategy, CBP rapidly expanded its ranks, hiring roughly 8,000 additional front-line positions since 2008. Due to the rapid influx, not all new agents were subjected to thorough background checks and lie-detector tests, raising the possibility that unfit agents or spies from Mexican cartels were hired.

“It is more desirable for our adversaries to attempt to compromise our employees or infiltrate our agency than ever before,” said Tomsheck. “It is perhaps a more important aspect of their achieving success than it has been before.”

“As efforts to secure the border meet with increasing success, the smugglers have been forced to become more creative and clever in their illicit activities,” added acting DHS Inspector General Charles Edwards.

Currently about one quarter of all new hires have been polygraphed, but Tomsheck said that by next year all new front-line personnel will have been tested. In addition the department is considering re-testing all veteran employees with polygraphs every five years like the FBI.

As the Obama administration weighs its options, some lawmakers question the wisdom of relocating border patrol agents. Senator John Cornyn (R –Texas) worries that if agents are redeployed, they could lose their local relationships with individuals who provide them with tips and intelligence.

“I want to know a little bit more about whether dropping people into new environments has actually been demonstrated to be successful in dealing with the potential for corruption,” Cornyn said.